The present invention relates to a novel catalytic technique for making indene. More specifically, the present invention relates to a dehydrogenation process for converting indene precursors to indene by contacting the indene precursors with a phosphate catalyst at elevated temperature in the presence of an oxygen donor.
Many patents directed to copolymers containing indene as an essential component have recently issued. Unfortunately, at the present time there is no simple, straight forward and economical technique for producing indene monomer.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel technique for producing indene in a simple, economic and straight forward manner.